Director: Richard Gray
Script: Lee Zachariah
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Samuel L. Jackson, Brandon Lessard, Veronica Ferres, Gianni Capaldi, David Arquette, Q’orianka Kicher
Running time: 91 mins
Year: 2025
Certificate: 15
Western films tend to come along in waves; a bit like buses. You don’t see any new Western movies for a while and then a batch of them come out within six months of each other and then no more emerge for a few more years. We must currently be at a juncture in time where Westerns are favourable again as quite a few have emerged in recent months, including The Thicket, which I reviewed here recently. This is no bad thing since I enjoy a good Western, having been introduced to them by my dad, via a sizable number of John Wayne, Clint Eastward and James Stewart films that we watched together during my formative years, mostly on old B & W TVs.
So how does The Unholy Trinity stack up against the above ‘Holy Trinity’? (See what I did there?); well, actually, pretty well.
Set in Montana, in 1888 – the same year that old Jack was letting rip in olde London town several thousand miles away – The Unholy Trinity tells the story of Henry Broadway, who begins the film watching his father hang for a crime his pop claims he was set up for by an unscrupulous sheriff. Just before he dies Isaac Broadway asks his son to avenge him and kill off said sheriff, a certain Saul Butler.
Henry then takes to the road and returns to his father’s hometown to seek justice at the end of his gun. However, when he arrives at his destination he quickly finds himself out of his depth, after almost killing the wrong man, namely the new sheriff, Gabriel Dove (played with aplomb by Pierce Brosnan). Dove takes pity on him and lets him off with a caution, but Gabriel has secrets of his own, and is connected to Henry’s quarry, as Butler was killed previously by a friend of his, an Indian woman, when he tried to forcibly evict her from her home.
And, to round of the ‘trinity’, we also have another traveller called St Christopher (Samuel L. Jackson) who claims to have known Henry’s pop well, and even helped him to steal some army gold during the civil war, and now he’s come for his share. Suffice to say things get a little more complicated from here on in, but I don’t want to give too much away.
It’s fair to say that The Unholy Trinity doesn’t really do anything new here, but what it does do, it does well and in a stylish way. The Montana countryside is shown off to good effect (the cinephotography is given a more filmic look), and Marco and Trisan Beltrami’s score nicely underlines the grandeur of the environment and the drama unfolding within it.
The acting is all ‘top-drawer’ with both Jackson and Brosnan clearly enjoying their meaty roles. Jackson, in particular, seems to enjoy playing more complex, darker (in spirit) characters, for sure, and St Christopher is certainly one of those characters.
There’s a nice balance between quieter moments – that lay the foundations down for the drama to unfold around – and action sequences, such as a few memorable (and quite bloody) shoot-outs.
Fans of Western lore will certainly enjoy the film as it moves along at the air clip and holds the attention.
Signature Entertainment is distributing The Unholy Trinity and it’s currently available on DVD. The only extras on the disc were two trailers for other Signature distributed films including Damaged and The Thicket.
